Korea summit | Was this the breakthrough?

It was (once again) a historic meeting. For the third time this year, North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, and South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, shook hands.

They agreed on initial nuclear disarmament, buffer and no-flight zones, a joint application for the 2032 Olympics, and the next joint meeting in Seoul.

However, was this really a breakthrough?

North Korea expert Bernhard Bartsch (Bertelsmann Foundation): “If these common projects will indeed be implemented, in the future this meeting will count as a breakthrough. With respect to the North Korea crisis, however, one should avoid any premature praise.”

Bartsch thinks: “South Korea’s president is obviously pursuing a policy of change through cooperation. His hope is: the more concrete joint projects North and South Korea have, the more exchanges will take place, and the more difficult it will be for the North to suddenly end the cooperation again. Moon also understands that his policy can be successful if Kim can shine with these initiatives. He has to make sure that Kim comes off well.”

North Korea

In this interview, the former head of planning of the Chancellery and Korea expert, Wolfgang Nowak, explains the Korean summit.

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The expert also points out that this would not be the first time that North Korea announced big projects that later failed because of presumptuous demands. Bartsch: “Hence one always has to be careful. As is well known, nothing came out of the big announcements at the summit with Trump in Singapore. However, the agreements with South Korea are much more concrete and realistic.”

Bartsch concludes: “It is still a very long way to reunification. But a peace treaty would be a first step.”